@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

jendefer

@jendefer@dice.camp

Dicey Stories showrunner. Birder. TTRPG GM/player.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ai6yr, to food

Well, let's try boiling the nopal today versus just eating it raw or quickly cooked...

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@ai6yr Do you harvest just a particular type of nopal, or are all the different variations on the table?

bryanhowie, to DnD
@bryanhowie@dice.camp avatar

What are the benefits of smaller or larger groups in your game? Does size matter?

https://characteralchemyrpg.wordpress.com/2024/04/28/size-matters/

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@bryanhowie Personally, I find GMing for large groups (4+) more difficult, as there are more people I have to monitor to make sure they are engaged and they are finding things for their characters to do. In our small group games, it's quite easy to flip back and forth between the two players.

With just 2 players, we can focus more on the story being about the characters, as was mentioned in the article.

1/2

Kokirimuscle, to random
@Kokirimuscle@woof.group avatar

When I hear people say in that they like to make up the character’s backstory and personality as they play rather than beforehand or at a session 0, I think they must have players that are far better at improv than the ones I play with.

In my experience, if a character doesn’t have a backstory at the beginning, they never will have one.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@Kokirimuscle There's a middle ground. I can start a game knowing roughly what my character's occupation was, some vague idea of his home life, plus one significant event from his youth.

But then details about the trajectory of his education, the types of con jobs he ran, where his grandparents came from, etc... those are things that come spur of the moment in light of play at the game table.

So like @SJohnRoss said, a basic backstory that gains depth and detail at the table.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@SJohnRoss @Kokirimuscle "frontstory" - I like that. Yeah, some TTRPGs build that into the game to ensure players have such touch points. I play a lot of and so my characters always have at the very least a desire, fear, strength, and flaw that can provide hooks.

kate, to random
@kate@aus.social avatar

Something about the : people describing their own images with language that is precise like a signature. The photographs of @HonDuMuc come with a painterly layer of description that brings out secretive detail. Filmmaker @dilmandila describes flowers exactly as you’d expect a filmmaker to do. @paralithode uses the language of careful poetic observation and I learn every time.

I seek out like someone opening a window in an advent calendar, and every time I’m so grateful to all the screenreader users here like @bright_helpings who keep pointing the way to this intimate space of wonder that makes things better for everyone.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@kate You might also enjoy the by @handmade_ghost where bird pictures that are already really impressive gain an additional layer of reflection or commentary.

nathanlovestrees, to Birding
@nathanlovestrees@disabled.social avatar

Heard a hawk high in a tree, spent several minutes looking for it. It was so loud and so close but I couldn’t spot it. I did see a starling though and then realized I had been duped.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@nathanlovestrees I heard a car alarm going off in a tree. Couldn't see the car, but I did spot a Northern Mockingbird.

;v)

stardust, to transgender
@stardust@jenrweb.com avatar

Is there a book or anything that does a good job of explaining being non binary / transgender ? My dad is trying to understand everything better and does well with things that explain concepts in basic ways...

I found the book - He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters by Schuyler Bailar but have not read it myself - what do people think of it?


jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@stardust Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe is a graphic novel memoir that puts a face on the nonbinary experience (well, a nonbinary experience). It's not a nonfiction treatment of the matter, but it helps the reader understand.

Also, I recently read Gender Identity for Kids by Andy Passchier if you need a really basic explanation (with great illustrations, too!).

jendefer, to art
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

I was going to wait until Easter to show off all my eggs, but I'm too excited about how the onion skin ones turned out today. We wrap raw eggs with wet skin from yellow and red onions, secure them in old stockings, and boil them for 15 or so minutes. We like to put leaves or flowers against the egg first so that we can get some extra patterns and color. I love the variety!

We've also got red cabbage and red wine eggs underway, and this year I'm trying carrot, too.

On a cookie rack above a dishcloth sit hardboiled eggs. Four eggs on the right are wrapped in stockings tied closed. The onion skins within are barely visible. Five eggs to the left have had their stockings removed. Now the wet onion skins are clearly visible, wrapped around the eggs to varying degrees. The skins vary from yellow to red to dark red. (The bottom right has an almost white egg with touches of orange. It spent half an hour in carrot water.)

nickdrawthing, to Genesys
@nickdrawthing@dice.camp avatar

On a bit of a whim I picked up #Genesys #rpg and the dice to go with it. I know custom dice is a contentious topic but I personally like the idea and am excited to try it.
That being said, I'm coming to the system cold. I'm working through the rulebook but it's 200+ pages so I'm having trouble keeping it all in my head. Any good resources out there for learning the system? Cheat sheets, actual plays (that adhere fairly closely to the rules), blog posts, etc?

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@nickdrawthing A good way to get started with is to look at the free adventures published in each of the released settings. Those sort of ease you into the rules.

A lot of resources are gathered in this Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/raqr7usuzwizglm/AACsYe6LVU_-f372tRG6vxtya?e=1&lst=&dl=0

That includes the free published adventures and various other references. There's an associated Discord server too, if you're interested.

And I make a Genesys actual play podcast, Dicey Stories. https://diceystories.com/

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@nickdrawthing Sure thing! I've been playing #Genesys regularly ever since it came out. I played its predecessor at a gaming convention back in 2016 or 2017 and was hooked by the multi-axis results of the dice system. I'm also a big fan of class-less RPGs, so I really like the freedom this system has to grow a character in whatever direction you want. And since Genesys is genre-agnostic, we can use it for all sorts of campaigns!

#ttrpg #GenesysRPG

pussreboots, to bookstodon
@pussreboots@sfba.social avatar

Five stars: What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (2023) is a survey of our current understanding of owls. The audiobook is read by the author.

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2024/comments_03/what_an_owl_knows.html

@bookstodon

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@pussreboots @bookstodon Oh, fabulous! I didn't know Jennifer Ackerman had another book out. I've really enjoyed her other bird books.

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

A bit of snow overnight, hopefully more today. I always think it's so hilarious that the mini horses and the llama just don't care at all if they get covered by snow (they do indeed have a huge shelter from the snow! They just choose not to use it). I guess that means they are very well-insulated?

The goats will hide in the barn all day, they definitely DO mind if they get snow all over them.

The darker horse's coat provides a great opportunity to check out the different snowflake shapes

A llama looking extremely dignified while munching on a large hay bale surrounded by a little metal feeder fence, in the middle of a snowy farmyard surrounded by tall wooden fences. The llama has snow all over his back, and is a very similar colour to the hay bale sitting next to him that has snow all over it too.
A close-up picture of the brown horse's back, where lots of individual snowflakes are visible sitting on top of his dark brown fur.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@sundogplanets Did you make your tiramisu with ladyfingers or some kind of cake? I've experimented with various cookie types.

jendefer, to books
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@bookstodon

Any recommendations for good SFF/speculative books that are written first person? My wife and I are really enjoying reading the Murderbot books aloud to each other. Part of that is the great writing and sparkling personality of the main character, but I think part of it is also the different vibe of first person writing, where the narrator is telling a story to the audience. I'd like to find more books like that.

jendefer, to books
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

This weekend my wife and I both read the graphic novel Us by Sara Soler, which I learned of here on Mastodon. There were so many things in this book we could relate to! (We'd been married for about nine years when my spouse came out to me and started transitioning.) Even if your partner is not trans, there is a lot of value in this little book, to help you understand just a little more about a sliver of trans (and queer) experience.

@bookstodon

vga256, to books
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

once a week i drive my wife to a dance class, and i have an hour to kill before she’s done. i head over to a local thrift shop and dig through books and piles of junk. last time I found a dead TI-84 calculator that got rebuilt.

today, I found Red Mars.

i wish I could say that when I was in grad school that Taylor or Heidegger or Bachelard or Freud had left the most profound shift in my understanding of the world.

but no, for some reason it was this book that did. Robinson’s portrait of a settler-scientist society in extreme conflict from within and without, provides this reflection of where we’re at now - here, on Earth. i know of no fuller anthropological study of life on another planet that rings truer than this one.

so now, I have one very grateful hour every week where I can sit in the car and read. 😃

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@vga256 I read Red Mars 25 years ago for a scifi/fantasy class at university. With your comments here, I think it really bears a reread for me now. So thanks for sharing!

carpingdiem, to Birds
@carpingdiem@med-mastodon.com avatar

There are so many bluebirds hanging about, as well as the usual suspects. And finally, the rain has let up and we have some sun.

A female American goldfinch, looking pale in the winter sunlight, sits on a branch, all puffed out.
A blue-grey tufted titmouse leaps from its perch, wings still furled, as it moves closer to the feeder.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@carpingdiem I love that titmouse picture! Flying birds snapped with their wings closed look so goofy sometimes.

18+ sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Just a reminder that there's not a binary "we're doomed"/"we're not doomed." Every single thing you and I do to use less energy makes the future less shitty. Don't give up hope.

Don't write back to me with all the reasons to give up on the future. If you give up on making the future better, you are part of the problem.

Tell me something you're doing right now to make the future better, even if it's something small!

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@sundogplanets We have solar panels, but no way to store the excess (it gets fed back into the grid). We try to run our major appliances during the daylight when we can. We switched to being a single-car household with a plug-in hybrid for now.

jendefer, to cooking
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

I have just been hit with a windfall of like 30 heads of . There is no way we can get through this before it all wilts. My wife's calling her friends, seeing who she can offload some onto. As for me, I'm looking for ideas that are more than just salad.

I got through one head of romaine by slicing it up and it in a wok with some oil and garlic and a splash of soy sauce, making it into a bok-choy-like side dish.

Only 29 to go.

jendefer,
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@SJohnRoss Oh, that's a good idea, just for dressing variety. I have celery seed in the pantry but seldom use it.

amyfou, to Birds
@amyfou@lingo.lol avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    jendefer,
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    @amyfou Greetings back to you also from 🌵 🌵 . We just had our first phainopepla sighting of the season in our neighborhood a couple days ago. Heard the delightfully plaintive chirrip-chirrip and then managed to spot the bird on its tippy-top perch.

    masukomi, to random
    @masukomi@dice.camp avatar

    I got to thinking about Generic TTRPG systems, and why I don't really care when I see a new one. It's not that I own a lot of them. It's that they're really just generic combat systems. It doesn't matter how great your new combat system is... I want to do more than just go around fighting people.

    That's what this blog post is all about.

    https://weblog.masukomi.org/2024/01/26/on-generic-ttrpg-systems/

    jendefer, (edited )
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    @masukomi Why is listed as "sadly abandoned" in your round up of generic ? To each their own, of course, but it's my group's of choice, and we use it for a variety of genres, to tell stories of characters who do struggle and who do not spend most of their time in combat.

    JimsPhotos, to random
    @JimsPhotos@ohai.social avatar

    My birthday present is gonna keep me busy!

    Got the base game for Christmas and it is excellent, now I can play with my native birds and a set that I have no idea about (Oceana) so I get to learn a load whilst playing.

    jendefer,
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    @JimsPhotos You will have a grand time! I seldom play Wingspan to win. Usually it's an excuse to look at all the birds. Adding in the Oceania birds made me so happy. Have fun!

    jendefer, to Birding
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    Lord and Lady Vermillion, of the Flycatcher Dynasty, in my tiny backyard.

    I thought I saw a Say's Phoebe a few days ago, but now I suspect it was this female Vermillion Flycatcher.

    jendefer,
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    Here she is, a little fuzzy, but adorable nonetheless. This is the female Vermillion Flycatcher that's been visiting my yard this week. She seems to like this wall and also a nice perch atop one of my dead sunflower stems. This was taken with my cellphone/monocular mash-up and through my closed sliding glass door.

    jendefer, to coffee
    @jendefer@dice.camp avatar

    Today's kitchen adventure will be making coffee at home with no special equipment. I've never made coffee before, but I was gifted a bag that my friends got on their visit to Vietnam. It's already ground, so I don't have to worry about that, just the steeping.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • tacticalgear
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • Durango
  • cubers
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • GTA5RPClips
  • provamag3
  • ethstaker
  • InstantRegret
  • Leos
  • normalnudes
  • everett
  • khanakhh
  • osvaldo12
  • cisconetworking
  • modclub
  • anitta
  • tester
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •